It’s been months since I had a comics reading day (I mean night; my sleeping patterns are Not OK at the moment), and I’ve got stacks to read. But in a way it’s surprising that there’s not more? I’ve read nothing about this on whatever passes for news in comics circles these days, but it seems like everybody is cutting down drastically, as well as a lot of smaller publishers just vanishing after the Diamond bankruptcy/fake Swindle Diamond resurrection?
If I go to Midtown and look at the preorders for, say, Fantagraphics, I get the above. 11 books. And of those, 6 are Disney things, and two are facsimile reprints.
Drawn & Quarterly — only five books for preorder.
Uncivilized — two books.
What’s going on? Is everybody going under? The number of comics I’ve bought the last half year has to be, like, half of what I was buying in the same period in 2024. Or a third, perhaps.
| Kid Spatula: Joozy |  |
03:17: King-Cat #84 by John Porcellino
But at least there’s John Porcellino.
Hey, that’s not very zen!
This is a more minimal than usual issue, because things have happened, but it’s a good issue.
| Jenny Hval: Iris Silver Mist |  |
03:38: Reelpolitik by Nathan Gelgud (Drawn & Quarterly)
OK, this is a collection of single page gag strips? About working in a cinema. And movies.
The jokes are bad, and they’re of the kind I hate the most — referential humour designed to make the reader go “I know that reference! I’m cultured!” and then click “share” on Facebook. I mean Insta. Somehow I hate this genre even more when I know the references like here.
Oh god, I can’t take this any more. It’s not just the smugness, but it’s how long time Gelgud takes to get to his awful punchlines. If these had been more snappy, they’d at least have been inoffensive, but reading this book is just painful. So I ditched it after these two jokes.
03:53: Dogtangle by Max Huffman (Fantagraphics)
Has this been published before? It’s about Hypermutt, and I seem to remember buying a bunch of minis with that name, but this is totally unfamiliar to me.
I really like Huffman’s artwork, but the storyline here is very… er… vague? It doesn’t quite seem to cohere.
But there’s some good jokes along the way.
| Herbert & Momoko: Clay |  |
04:08: The Stenographer by Susan Kaplan
Hey, this is a pretty cool little book.
I like it.
04:11: My Gorilla Family by Iijima Ichiro (Living the Line Books)
Eh… I haven’t been impressed by the Japanese comics published by Living the Line. But let’s see.
Well, he can’t really draw people, but it looks pretty good otherwise.
The stories are extremely violent, and most end in complete horror.
I can’t say that I liked reading this book, but I guess it’s got something.
| jasmine.4.t: You Are The Morning |  |
04:50: Prima Materia by Kade McClements (Desert Island)
I like the artwork — the vague linework coupled with the slabs of colour.
And the story is both totally engrossing and utterly original. Really good stuff.
05:04: Orphan and the Five Beasts: Bath of Blood #1 by James Stokoe (Dark Horse)
Stokoe’s artwork is impossibly detailed.
Ooo, may I guess what that poor woman is pregnant with?
Anyway, it’s a good start to another story arc — I don’t actually remember the previous one, but I kinda remember that it was pretty good? But the art is the real attraction.
05:14: Black Cat #1-2 by Wilson/Melnikov (Marvel Comics)
I’m always on the prowl for a new monthly book — it’s nice to have a few serialised comics that just arrive regularly. But it’s an almost impossible ask these days: If it’s something that I actually enjoy, it’s usually cancelled after a half dozen issues.
But here we go again.
This is pretty amusing. The artwork is very Marvel 2025, but… better? A bit, at least?
The storyline is contrived and convoluted, but I guess that’s just what super-hero comics are like these days. It’s entertaining enough, though — I’ll keep reading. So I guess this’ll be cancelled by issue five.
| ganavya: Nilam |  |
05:32: The Mortal Thor #1-2 by Al Ewing/Ferry/Hollingsworth (Marvel Comics)
The last time I started buying a series credited to a writer called “Ewing”, it wasn’t Al, so I made triple sure this time around.
Heh. Norwegian. But that should be “være” and not “vaere”. TSK TSK I DEMAND MY NO-PRIZE!
The artwork’s quite attractive, and the storyline seems interesting — it’s about evil capitalists and stuff. I’m in. (It’ll be cancelled before ten issues, though.)
| Poor Creature: All Smiles Tonight |  |
05:47: Hybred by Francesca Filomena and Jamie Mustard (Street Noise)
This is a pretty strange book. I starts off as one of those gritty books about growing up destitute…
… but then turns into a kinda-sorta super-hero story, and then… er…
I quite enjoyed the first three fourths of this book, but…
06:23: Weed Comics by CF
Heh heh. I got this from here.
And I think the advertising is true?
It’s very.
Hm, perhaps I should eat something… I’m getting very terse…
| Pile: Sunshine and Balance Beams |  |
06:31: Fruit Salad by Cathon (Pow Pow Press)
Hey, this is really funny. The artwork is charming, and the comedic timing is on point.
Heh heh heh. This is fantastic. I’ve laughed out a bunch of times. Especially the unexpected bits where you get a callback to a previous gag have a cumulative effect where everything just gets funnier and funnier.
It’s so silly!
Hey! I read that book a week ago!
I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by Cathon before? I’m fixing that — I’ve now bought most of her books.
| Marie Davidson: City Of Clowns |  |
07:26: Nulteliv 3 by Espen Friberg & Fredrik Larsen (No Comprendo Press)
The first two volumes of this were hilarious — it’s about a bunch of kids in the early 90s.
But instead of being the usual nerdy stuff, it’s about kids being assholes and stuff. Which is refreshing.
Unfortunately, the artwork has either regressed, or the storylines have become more ambitious — because it’s frequently pretty much impossible to tell what’s supposed to be going on. Unless you read the pages over again a couple times, which ruins the jokes.
It’s a shame, because it feels like it could have been a solid instalment, but instead it’s just kinda lame for the most part. There’s some solid jokes, but…
07:59: Jaywalk #5 edited by Floyd Tangeman and Austin English (Domino Books)
This issue has all these people.
And it’s great! It’s a good mix of shorter pieces…
… and longer things, and more narrative…
… and more abstract.
And funnier things.
It just works so well as an anthology. Too bad this is the final issue, apparently.
You can order copies from Domino Books.
| Matmos: Metallic Life Review |  |
08:27: Mon cul by Danny Steve (Les requins marteaux)
This is an oversized collection of mostly wordless strips.
I like it. It’s got a mood going on, and it’s pretty funny, too.
| Exventory: Pinhead Leaks |  |
08:37: The Mongoose by Joana Mosi (Pow Pow Press)
This book has an interesting narrative structure — we’re told extremely little about what’s going on (or even what country we’re in), so we have to figure things out ourselves a lot, even if things are explained more towards the end.
And I like that sort of thing in general, but here it’s mostly just frustrating. And the protagonist is meant to be a frustrating person, too, but that just adds to the discomfort of reading thing.
The art style chosen here is also really limiting. For instance, it’s not at all clear in scenes like the above whether that’s supposed to be a living cat, or whether that kid killed it, or whether it’s a toy… mongoose?
Which may be an artistic choice, but it’s like uuuungh!
09:22: Wish We Weren’t Here by Peter Kuper (Fantagraphics)
Oh deer. I’ve been a fan of Kuper’s comics since the 80s — he can be incisive, funny and interesting. And of course, the artwork has always been striking.
But… this is just… trite. Sorry! Sorry!
It takes headlines and illustrates them in the fashion above. Sorry; I didn’t last more than thirty pages before I had to give up.
Kuper’s heart is, as always, in the right place, but as a book, this just doesn’t work.
09:30: Monster Fan Club #3 by Shaky Kane (Floating World Comics)
Very abstract…
And then the rest isn’t, really, but it moves between these monster comics, and then about reading monster comics as a child, and unexpectedly comes to a rather moving conclusion. Class!
| Debbie Friday: The Starr of the Queen of Life |  |
09:39: The End
But now it’s getting light outside, and I have some errands to run, so I think I’ll call it a day. That’s enough comics for today anyway.